Exclusive: the train operator is awarding customers £45 for recent
disruptions, regardless of the price of their ticket

Thousands of Virgin West Coast customers facing train delays and cancellations this month are being awarded the wrong compensation, with some being left hundreds of pounds out of pocket, the Telegraph has established.

Today the rail operator admitted its customer service centre is in crisis as staff are unable to cope with an unprecedented number of compensation claims for disrupted service, the result of recent flooding across the North of England.

To save time customers applying for refunds over the past three weeks have been handed blanket payouts of £45, even though some are owed substantially more or less than this amount.

An estimated 170,000 Virgin West Coast journeys have been severely delayed or cancelled during the affected period, calculations show.

Virgin West Coast's standard policy is to refund customers 50pc of the value of their ticket if their train is delayed by 30 minutes more more, and 100pc of the ticket price if it is delayed by more than an hour.

One customer who was owed £110 for a severely delayed train, but instead received £45, was told the firm's systems had been suffering "teething troubles" for the last three weeks and it had frequently "defaulted" to paying people £45, even when this was not the appropriate value.

Another customer whose train journey was delayed in early January received a letter stating: "Over recent weeks we have been dealing with an increased level of correspondence and compensation claims in particular. This has resulted in us taking significantly longer to reply to everyone than we would have liked. Because of this, we decided to send a standard response with a set amount of compensation so that we could reply more quickly.

"In the majority of cases the compensation was equivalent to or higher than we would normally offer. Unfortunately some customers were entitled to more than they received in our initial response and I apologise for any additional frustration we have caused."

According to the National Conditions of Carriage, the laws by which all train companies must abide by, if travel is delayed by more than 60 minutes, companies must refund customers with a minimum of 50pc of the price paid. Different rules apply to season ticket holders.

Approximately 1.7 million journeys have been made with Virgin West Coast since the beginning of 2016 with an average of 5.7pc of trains either cancelled or significantly late, according to Network Rail. Since October travellers on the West Coast mainline between London and Scotland have been eligible for automatic refunds if their train is delayed.

James Daley, director at Fairer Finance, said: "Train tickets can run into hundreds of pounds these days, so if people are going to be miffed if they are only getting £45 refunded for a severe delay. Travellers need to know their rights and not be afraid to ask for more money if they know they are owed it."

A spokesman for Virgin Trains on the west coast said: “In times of exceptional disruption, we receive a great many claims for delay compensation. We don’t want to make people wait whilst we work through all those claims, so in the interests of helping customers quickly we sometimes pay out a fixed amount which we believe is more generous than the average claim. However, if anyone thinks they have been paid too little then they should of course get in touch and we’ll be happy to investigate further.”

What should I do if I've received the wrong amount of compensation?

If you've been given too much compensation, then it's good news. Virgin West Coast says you can keep the money. If your compensation is less than the amount you were expecting Virgin West Coast will pay you the difference. The instructions are to call its helpline on 0331 031 031 (open 8am to 10pm, 7 days a week) to claim the full amount you are owed.

Have you been affected by train delays or had a problem with compensation? We want to hear about it. Email: katie.morley@telegraph.co.uk